A refrigerator is an apparatus for keeping food refrigerated or frozen, and it may be composed of a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment for storing different kinds of food and drink.
The inside of a refrigerator is cooled by cold air that is continually being supplied. The cold air is continually generated by heat exchanging action of a refrigerant during a refrigerating cycle such as a compression-condensation-expansion-evaporation cycle. Cold air supplied into the refrigerator is evenly transferred by convection so that food and drink in the refrigerator can be stored at a desired temperature.
In general, the body of refrigerator has a cuboidal shape of which the front is open. A refrigeration compartment and a freezer compartment may be provided in the body. Further, the front of the body can be equipped with a door for the refrigeration compartment and a door for the freezer compartment to cover the openings. The storage space inside the refrigerator can include a number of drawers and racks, storage boxes, and so on to keep various foods and drinks in optimal conditions inside the refrigerator.
A top freezer type of refrigerator includes a freezer compartment positioned at the top and a refrigeration compartment positioned at the bottom. In recent times, a bottom freezer type of refrigerator that includes a freezer compartment positioned at the bottom has been introduced. In the case of a bottom freezer type of refrigerator, since the refrigeration compartment, which is used often, is positioned at the top, and the freezer compartment, which is used less often, is positioned at the bottom, there is an advantage because a user may conveniently use the refrigeration compartment. However, since the freezer compartment of a bottom freezer type of refrigerator is positioned at the bottom, the user has to bend his/her body and open the door of the freezer compartment to take out ice, and this may not be comfortable to the user.
To solve this problem, in recent times, a refrigerator that has an ice dispenser in the door of the refrigeration compartment positioned at the top of a bottom freezer type of refrigerator has been introduced. In this case, an ice maker may be equipped in the door of the refrigeration compartment or inside the refrigeration compartment.
The ice maker may include an ice making assembly having an ice tray for making ice, an ice bucket for storing the ice, and a transfer assembly for transferring the ice stored in the bucket to the dispenser. The ice made in the ice making assembly is dropped to the ice bucket positioned at the bottom of the ice tray and then may pile up inside the ice bucket.
Meanwhile, a water filter is usually installed in a refrigerator that includes an ice maker so that water supplied from a water source can be purified and provided to the ice maker.
According to the prior art, the water filter is placed in a space between the drawers in the refrigerator compartment to make better use of that space.
However, in most bottom freezer types of refrigerators, the ice maker is placed at the top of the refrigerator compartment or at the top of a refrigerator compartment door, and the dispenser is also placed mostly at the top of the refrigerator compartment door.
Hence, since a flow channel for supplying water between the water filter and the ice maker and between the water filter and the dispenser is elongated, it acts as a resistance element against a suitable flow channel pressure, and also acts as a factor that increases cost. In particular, a separate booster valve has to be used if the water pressure where the refrigerator is located (e.g., a house) is low.